Ibstone

This morning a bunch of my knobbly chums and I met up a few miles south of Watlington in another area boasting many a red kite swirling overhead. R2 had pulled together quite a tasty route that enticed even clipperty-clopperty Robbery out of knobbled retirement :p

The weather forecast didn't look promising but after driving thru a few small showers, saddlin' up and cranking a few clicks the skys brightened and the layers were removed. Reviewing R2's route we knew that it wouldn't be long before we'd be panting up another ascent. But "what goes up, MUST come down" and the pantin' was soon replaced with "whoops" :)

The route consists mainly of bridleways but as is the norm around here they're often dug into the landscape and provide excellent banked turns to liven up the long fast descents. Thankfully the drizzle hadn't turned the chalky ground into a quagmire but I can image the route would be a serious grind in the wetter months.

The MG club followed us through the back lanes for most of the day which reminded us how far the old tin-tops have come along these days.

In preparation for our summer Alpine assault I decided to boot up with moosive 2.5" DH knobblies and give the new rubber a pukka test. They didn't seem to drag on a recent Woburn but my oh my was I getting fed up of constantly crankin' the blighters up 3k ft+. The trade off were completely solid DH run's were I could pick'n'choose my line with greater confidence. Mind you on the last flinty descent I had to temper my rapid descent as the sole of my feet were getting pounded with rocks kicked up by the front hoop ! Yes DHilla, I've finally been converted to Maxxis!

With all the Canyon rigs on this ride I kinda felt left out on my hefty Turner. I know that my German climbs a darn sight easier with skinny 2.2's. The last few climbs were long and the gully up the final haul caught out the few who still had the legs to winch their way up.

Thanks to R2 for organising another great ride on some tasty trails.

Pic's

Tracklog

Posse: Chaz (Nerve XC), Darren (Heckler), Dozer (Nerve ES), Farqui (5Spot), Rob (Flux), R2 (Nerve XC), Sicknote (Pitch), Uphilla (El Salty), Willy (Spesh h/tail)
Mechanicals: None - not even a flat tyre
Weather: Overcast clearing to sunny yet breezy

Chiltern Ride Invite

Ibstone - Chiltern Ride Invite...........

Ibstone is located between High Wycombe and Henley On Thames and is in close proximity to the nearby 'Ridgeway' village of Watlington. Watlington already has two blog posts. The first an MBR killer route, the second a fine route posted by Uphilla. It's a great area for riding and admiring stunning views, not to mention some decent MTB hills! The proposed route is just over 23 miles with 3100feet ascent. It should be a great ride to exercise the legs and lungs prior to summer or a trip to Morzine!

The proposed date for the ride is Saturday April 25th and you can see from the route map that the start point is in located close to the Pub at Ibstone Green. The time of ride is flexible as long as it allows for suitable refreshment in the pub ...post ride!

Let me know if you are interested.

Tracklog for route: http://knobblies.googlepages.com/R2_Ibstone2.trl

R2

Chiltern Ride and Curry

Hi,

For those interested I'd like to propose a Chiltern Ridgeway MTB ride based around the Wendover area. Ride starting from my house (Berkhamsted), and returning to my local for a well deserved Thai Curry....

Dates proposed:

July 12th - posse preference

Start Point: Lock 48 on the Grand Union Canal, post code HP4 3TF

Start Time 3.00pm

Let me know if you are intersted and your preferred dates. I'll try to organise and confirm details.

Update: Here is the link to my suggested route in Tracklogs format (pic added above): http://knobblies.googlepages.com/R2_Wendover_24Mile_option.trl This route is not 'set in stone' and we can easily make changes on the day as required.

R2

NETTLEBED

It seems so long since I have been on a decent ride I decided that I would take a Saturday off and head somewhere interesting. It was also a chance to find out if a recently diagnosed shoulder problem would cope with off-road.

Initially it was going to be Llandegla, but I allowed myself to be talked out of this on the basis of distance to drive time/fun ratio. So it came down to a toss up between Cannock and the Chilterns, the latter won on the basis of new ground/longer ride.

Santa had brought me a Rough Ride Guide to my beloved Chilterns and a loop from Nettlebed looked promising as it was described as a good winter choice. A sunny day made it seem more appealing.

I have always come back from the Chilterns with a smile on my face; it was not to be this time.

You will often see forum threads about GPS versus map & compass, if I needed convincing about the value of GPS this was the day, for when I switched my unit on the route had, due to operator error, not transferred properly and I was left with the A5 size map and written directions from the book to guide me. It soon became clear how this would affect the ride as I spent so much time having to look at the guide it completely stopped any flow, what a bummer :-(

The second blot was that many of the tracks were very muddy and churned up by horses – so I spent much time trying to find the driest line. Although in true Chiltern style there were some potentially brilliant downhill blasts, the navigation and “gloop” just took any fun out of it. In the end I called it a day and headed back to base by road.

This really confirmed the value of trail centres in Winter, a couple of laps of Cannock would have been far more fun and I think the longer drive to Llandegla could be justified for something predictable. Oh well, at least I have a taste of what it could be like in Summer and will no doubt return when the ground is drier, oh, and I will be checking my GPS more carefully before I leave home next time.

Great to be out on the 5-Spot, though, it coped well. There seemed no after effects to my shoulder, though fighting for control in some of the slime did cause a twinge or two.....

Weather, unseasonally warm, bright.

Posse, just me (Turner)

Mechanicals, None

Tracklog

Chiltern Wendover Discovery

I've been planning an open invitation ride to give folks a sample of my local trails. I propose a twin loop of the Wendover area taking in some fine Chiltern views with a good mixture of climbs and down hill sections. To add some interest my plan is to time the ride to enable a half light, half dark circuit.

The proposed ride date is Sunday 9th December at approx 3.00pm

A convenient meeting point will be my house. After the ride I suggest we frequent my local which serves very affordable Thai food and local brew.

If you are interested then log a comment ASAP

Proposed route; Tracklog


R2

"Singletrack" CHILTERNS RIDE - 2nd November 2007

“Squirrel chasing in the Chilterns”

Well there they were happily collecting nuts for their winter store when out of the blue a Hi-Viz clad human appeared at speed on a silver machine. Poor things must be traumatised along with quite a few pheasants and wood pigeons……These routes are relatively quiet so the wildlife are clearly not used to being disturbed, and there was a lot of wildlife to be disturbed on this occasion!!

As nobody seemed able to come out to play at the weekend and withdrawal symptons setting in big time after Afan, I decided to give myself a day off and try something new.

Originally I was thinking about Llandegla, but then Singletrack Magazine landed on the mat with a selection of routes in the Chilterns. The loop we have done from Watlington is one of my favourite ‘natural’ rides and I must have done it 4 or 5 times now. The ST ‘hard’ route also started from Watlington, but covered very little of the same ground, I was intrigued and decided to give it a go.

The brilliant weather from earlier in the week held out and so I had a fabulous autumn day for the ride. The start takes in a short section of the Ridgeway, to the west and then heads off up a woodland bridleway, a steady climb. Like the other ride this one is a series of climbs up the chalk ridges followed by fast downhill blasts, but the difference is that all the climbs can be cleared. The autumn colours were vivid and the ground deep with golden leaves – the latter made some faster section interesting, as you had no idea what lay beneath this thick blanket.

Ground conditions were good overall, only a couple of brief mud patches churned by horse riders. The only real problem lay on the climb out Turville, this was steady until it hit the woods and there the ground was very soft making it very hard going, but with the addition of leaves it became impossible for my tiring legs and I had to admit defeat this time. Fortunately the resulting downhill was very “entertaining”.

Sadly the last few miles consist of a road drag up to Christmas Common, which seemed to go on and on. I expected a great downhill run back to the Ridgeway, but it was short and not that exciting.

Overall a great ride though with plenty to challenge. I am looking forward to going back in the summer to clear that woodland climb. :-)

Route: Tracklog

Posse: Uphilla, 5Spot

Mechanicals: None

Weather: warm, sunny, dry.

CHILTERN 'KILLER' LOOP, 22nd July 2007

Dozer had mentioned his wish to ride in the Chilterns last year, so we got our diaries together and finally got a date sorted.

Some of us have done this MBR killer loop before, for me it was my fourth time in the last year, last time was in April when the sun was shining and the trails were bone dry, so I have to admit to being a bit nervous as I headed down the M40 this time flanked by flooded fields.

After a very wet week countrywide it looked like we might just get away with a few showers. It was great to welcome two new riders in the shape of Paul, Dozer’s old University pal and Rob from California complete with his home built 18lb single speed cyclocross bike.

First bit of the ride takes in part of the Ridgeway and this had us slipping and sliding a bit, but was nowhere near as bad as I had feared. We gave Rob a head start on the first climb and then settled in the long granny ring grind – the steep ups showed clear signs of heavy rain with much of the surface washed away and the chalk base showing through.

The reward for the steep ups in normally a long downhill blast, but as we set off on the first of these our fun was quickly halted by a fallen tree, but then it was all clear. Noticeably not as fast as in April, but all seemed to get a buzz out of this track and one or two even ‘got some air’ in places. New to me was a sort of natural berm towards the end, no doubt worn by people trying to avoid the washed away mid-track.

The valley bottom trail we now covered was muddy in places, but not too bad, with some blue sky above it almost felt like July!

The next sharp climb was very washed out and slippy, but most cleared it. There is a bit of road up to Christmas Common then the next long blast through the woods. I expected this to be a bit to be a bit treacherous, but it was again better than expected. It did however catch Sicknote out as his wheel slipped into a rut and threw him off hurting his wrist, (he was looking a bit worried as he had a warning from Tracy not to hurt himself before their holiday). In April we were hitting over 30 mph on this track, the Garmin shows top speed around 24 mph this time.

The exit to this blast saw me with a flat rear tyre – the first I can remember on the 5-spot. So long that the spare in my bag had also got a leak, thanks Les for helping out with a new tube! :blush

Some more ups and downs before we reached that “impossible” hill. This made Dozer determined and he certainly got further up than anyone else I’ve ridden with, most were walking much sooner, even this was hard work in places.

Russell’s Water brought a challenging bridleway chute, with a sharp drop-off – this was a real blast on the loose & wet surface, almost reminding me of Wales. Over too quickly though. Somehow we managed to lose Les & Rob at this point, which gave some the chance to have another go as we went back to find where they had got to.

The final downhill blast was again slower than remembered and quickly turned into a very slimy rutted track which saw myself take an acrobatic tumble into the undergrowth much to Dozer’s amusement and then claimed another victim in Rob, who was tiring at this point, (How had he got so far with no gears!!). The run up to the return leg of the Ridgeway brought the first big puddles we had seen and also more clouds in the sky with the threat of rain. The Ridgeway itself has some deep muddy sections, but all got through and after loading up bikes it was time for a much needed pint, the rain still holding off. A good ride, especially considering the conditions elsewhere.

Weather: Cloudy, but dry

Posse: Dozer (Enduro); Les; (Hardrock); Darren: (Ancient Cannondale!); Sicknote (Hardrock); Paul (Hardrock); Uphilla; (5-Spot); Rob: (Homebuilt Singlespeed–unknown frame).

Mechanicals: Les & Paul; Chains came off. Uphilla: Puncture-Pinch flat

MORE PICS: HERE

Autumn Ride, Chilterns 12th November

Well, where were you all??? A fantastic ride probably less than an hour away and, if it had not been for a few new faces, it would have been just Farqui and myself!

The ‘Killer Loop’ series in MBR magazine have always been appealing, but until, now they have generally been too far away for a casual visit. When I saw the Chilterns route I got very excited, as it was a new area for me and not that far away. A posting on STW Forum caused quite a bit of reaction, clearly this is a popular biking area with a lot of potential.

The route starts at Watlington and heads onto the Ridgeway, (Farqui tells me this is England’s oldest road and one he attempted to ride a while back.) A good gentle warm up, because very soon we were faced with a steep and long climbs, fortunately on quite a good surface. Good to get this out of the way early and everyone managed to clear this. The reward for this height gain was soon to come after a short road section we headed off onto a woodland bridleway for a long fast downhill section which could mostly be done flat out, (keeping an eye open for walkers). Although there was more mud about than when I did my ‘recce’, the trail condition was generally very good.

The next climb, although shorter, was more ‘technical’ and saw one or two of the posse pushing before the top. A little more on the road and we reached Christmas Common and into the wood for another long blast – think I had the advantage here having done it before. This one just seemed to go on and on before ducking out into open countryside. A short road climb led to a short but fast downhill, but sadly this was over too quickly and we were faced with the most challenging climb of the day – according to the magazine no one has cleared this. Maybe because of the log across the trail half way up, but for us there was the added challenge of slippy leaves. My attempt ended quickly with wheel spin. Farqui was determined to get up and did well, but was still defeated before the log (think he will be back in drier weather to try again!)

There was nothing too demanding after this, but we were treated to another fast downhill on a field side trail before heading back onto the Ridgeway.

I must say I just love this route, it's not technically challenging, apart from some of the climbs perhaps, but the surface is good and the scenery is fab. The long downhill sections are such fun and no doubt get better with familiarity. If it was a choice between Cannock and the Chilterns, both around the same journey time, it would be a tough one.

It was great to see some new faces, my nephew Jeff kept us entertained with his ‘tricks’ – a long time cyclist probably more at home at the jumps at Woburn; His partner Heidi is new to Mountain Biking, so did very well, she regularly competes in triathlon events, so has the fitness, but found off road very different. Nice also to meet Paul from Northampton who found us through Dozer.

Posse: Farqui (5 Spot); Jeff (Trek HT); Heidi (Specialized Hardrock); Paul (Carrera HT); Uphilla (5-Spot).
Route: Tracklog
Weather: Bright, but cool
Mechanicals: None

More Photos